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England & Isle of Man adventure – part 4

After our tour of the race course, Nick decided that he wanted to watch the first day of racing from Creg Ny Baa, a corner at the end of a long, straight downhill. Racers would be hurtling toward us off the top of the mountain at close to top speed, downshifting just before a tight right-hander.

Unfortunately, the first day of racing became the first of many days of waiting. Bad weather had riders spooked, and then hail cancelled the races that day.

Nick and I retired to the beer tent behind the bar and immersed ourselves in the camaraderie of the event. How to describe it? During the TT, everyone talks to everyone else, whether they are locals or visitors, and the talk is not always about bikes either. An air of excitement, of a common purpose abounds, that of worshipping at the altar of the greatest road race in the world. Everyone is here to see speed, derring-do, and bravery (and believe me, these racers are brave).

After a few beers and a bowl of fries, we decided to walk back to our host’s house through the fields. All went well, until we ran into a dead end. Our options were to walk back uphill to an exit on the main road or hop a barbed wire fence. It was a long way back up, so we found a suitable spot to jump the fence and leaped over a small stream. Then it was a road walk the rest of the way back.

The next day, we returned to the grandstand and were treated to some pretty awesome supersport and side car racing.